Helping a neighbor with an EAB ash

[Kevin in Ohio]

He said he didn't want to try this one and asked if I'd help. Time to play!

Our neighbor had a larger ash tree that was taken out be EAB and he wanted it taken down. Power line on the backside. Pretty well balanced but a little towards the power line so decided to play it safe and brought the lift up

Put a cable in it just to be sure.

A couple old steel fence post for a dead man and put my notch in the tree.

I told him when it comes down it was going to explode as it has been basically standing dead for over 2 years.

Timber! Combo of wedges and cable to do a controlled fall.

Most of the smaller limbs came off on their own but the 6 inch and up stayed. Started cutting it up but didn't have too much time.

Large rounds here are 17 inches thick as that is what he wanted for his stove. Look skinny by the scale of the diameter.

Got close on the one side of the hinge and a little wide in the center. I'm rusty.

After dropping it my neighbor said," Man, you sure made a mess for my wife to clean up!" I'm planning on cutting the stump and getting a large cookie off the bottom. See how it dries out as I may make a rustic table out of it.

 

[Deleted member 135597]

That's a big ash you got there! Nice work

 

[Marshy]

Please share how you got it to fall and explode into 17" long uniform blocks at the base, thats impressive. I wish my trees did that when they landed.

Nice, looks like fun.

 

[JeffHK454]

Damn..you got a lift too ...you would be the best neighbor ever!

 

[fred bergman]

New
That's a big ash you got there! Nice work X2

 

[Iska3]

Good Job Kevin, That small twigs sure makes for a big mess tho.

 

[dor-moor hands]

Nice tree I wish I was still finding them that size here. Got a job lined up for 12 ash biggest is about 12" diameter. I might make a cord out of it all. At least they don't have all the limbs you had to deal with

 

[Whitespider]

LOL
Yep, it exploded, makes a mess for sure... I like to use the grass cutter to grind most of the small stuff into fertilizer
EAB ain't here yet, but it gets closer every day.
*

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

LOL
Yep, it exploded, makes a mess for sure... I like to use the grass cutter to grind most of the small stuff into fertilizer
EAB ain't here yet, but it gets closer every day.
*

All I can say is get ready. Those bugs don't miss much and there are only 2 types of ash trees around here. Dead ones and soon to be dead ones. I don't sell wood but the market has been killed for those guys as there is wood everywhere. Trimmers are enjoying it as homeowners are paying to have them taken down but don't want the wood. You can drive around and see dead standing everywhere and piles of wood in peoples yards.

I've pulled 15 cord/yr the past 3 years out of my little woods here at home and only quit at that because that is all the indoor storage I have available. There is 1000's of cords that will just rot up because not many burn here and the volumes we are talking about. Such a shame.

 

[Whitespider]

All I can say is get ready.

Yeah, I know... a sad deal for sure.
*

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

Saws made quick work of it.

Just got the stump to cut yet. Next up is the splitting.

Made one length cut for him on the stump and then cut a cookie. Cutting it with an 090 AV with a 4 ft bar.

Saving a cookie for conversation piece and if it doesn't split out too bad maybe make a rustic table. I know, no chaps on here but all is well. I do wear ear plus all the time though.

Only had a couple hours to split and we loaded it directly into his little pickup and then stacked. About a cord or more an hour.

This cookie kind of fills up the bed.

Said he's going to have them grind the stump. I told him to get a quote for 1 tree and see if they will bite

His pile is growing and we stacked 3 rows deep in spots.

Even with a 4 ft bar it wasn't able to single cut it. Had about 6 inches more because of the flare at the bottom.

 

[Iska3]

Wow! I knew the tree was big but looking at that cookie in the back of the truck sure puts things in their proper prospective. That puppy was a lot bigger than I thought. Our Ash around here are about half that size. More or less tall and thin like White Oaks. Good job Kevin.

 

[unclemoustache]

Dang - the pics in your first post didn't make it look so big - THIS really shows the size. I didn't know you had such a big ash.

 

[unclemoustache]

And speaking of EAB, the park around the St Louis arch just cut down many hundreds of trees - all ash - because they were fearing the EAB. That park has got the mississippi river on one side, and the city of St. Louis on 3 other sides. I don't know how the EAB gets around, but I would think this would be a difficult park for them to access.
From what I heard, they are replanting new trees - mostly the same variety (maples, I think), which is another dumb idea. The proper way is to do no more than 10% of any single variety in the event that some big disease or bug doesn't wipe out the whole lot, like the EAB, Dutch Elm Disease, etc.

 

[Full Chisel]

That's a big one!

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

Very solid tree and hated to see it die.

This was a very healthy, fast growing tree at times. Some of the growth rings were 3/4"

Finally quit raining and we were able to finish up the little dab we had left. the winch makes moving the bigger ones into position real easy. Dad and my neighbor are supervising. ;

Pick them up from the back or sides and get them to size. We normally just back down the length of the tree when it is a big one.

Into position and split off a chunk. Swing chunk and table out and split another off.

Leave a hanger and you have enough storage that nothing hits the ground again till it is split. In this case, we were throwing it the back of his truck so it never hit the ground till stacked

Found the piece we were looking for so we are done.

He had moved the smaller stuff out as he said he could handle that with his smaller splitter. He didn't want to hold me up.

Good little pile of wood and don't know for sure how much. I'm guessing 6 - 8. All I know is he is as happy as a lark!

 

[olyman]

He said he didn't want to try this one and asked if I'd help. Time to play!

Our neighbor had a larger ash tree that was taken out be EAB and he wanted it taken down. Power line on the backside. Pretty well balanced but a little towards the power line so decided to play it safe and brought the lift up

Put a cable in it just to be sure.

A couple old steel fence post for a dead man and put my notch in the tree.

I told him when it comes down it was going to explode as it has been basically standing dead for over 2 years.

Timber! Combo of wedges and cable to do a controlled fall.

Most of the smaller limbs came off on their own but the 6 inch and up stayed. Started cutting it up but didn't have too much time.

Large rounds here are 17 inches thick as that is what he wanted for his stove. Look skinny by the scale of the diameter.

Got close on the one side of the hinge and a little wide in the center. I'm rusty.

After dropping it my neighbor said," Man, you sure made a mess for my wife to clean up!" I'm planning on cutting the stump and getting a large cookie off the bottom. See how it dries out as I may make a rustic table out of it.

rustic table..... find someone with a steel strapping machine, and put a band around it TIGHT!! around the bark area... may have to change it once a week... should keep it from cracking like mad...........

 

[unclemoustache]

That winch setup - - nice!

 

[square1]

Nice work. There has to be a country western song in here somewhere about getting a nice piece of ash in the bed of your pick up truck. Were you packin of did you have cold beer or a tractor on site to fill in a few more verses?

 

[GVS]

He'd better be happy!A real good job.